Themed Weddings: Best Advice from Concept to Ceremony

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As engaged couples look to personalize their individual styles with a favorite wedding theme, many wedding industry experts and planners caution against straying too far outside the box. By choosing a theme that is unique yet practical, couples are likely to have greater accessibility to décor, greater guest understanding of the theme, and greater success in sticking to a budget. In addition, as the most popular wedding themes continue every year, soon-to-be spouses can pick and choose aspects of themes that appeal to them. Then they can add personal touches to create a theme customized to their personalities and preferences. 

For couples considering a theme for their wedding, experts advise focusing on five items when choosing a theme: the venue; the wedding colors; any shared interests; the wedding date/season; and the wedding budget. Couples should also keep in mind that a wedding theme is much more than signs and décor on walls and floors. It also applies to additional details such as invitations, flowers, and tabletop décor (linens, china, etc.) that can all play important roles in bringing together the overall theme, so that all décor serves as complementary to the chosen theme.  

Evidencing the popularity of themed weddings, current wedding industry statistics show that Google searches for “themed weddings” have increased 48% year over year. This information includes the time of COVID, when many weddings were cancelled, but the search for wedding themes continued. Two of the most popular wedding themes that emerged post-COVID, which are considered directly related to binge-watching television shows, are “Bridgerton” and “Game of Thrones.” While these two themes – along with themes of “Lord of the Rings,” “Twilight,” and Steampunk – have made impressive strides in recent popularity, statistics show it’s still the tried-and-true wedding themes that continue to be chosen more often. 

Currently, the 10 most popular wedding themes are: country/cowboy (23-50% increase, 695K hashtags); rustic/farmhouse (2 million hashtags); beach/tropical/nautical (22-26% increase, 2.3 million hashtags); vintage (1.2 million hashtags); classic (240K hashtags); bohemian (263K hashtags); fairy-tale/Disney (391K/220K hashtags); sci-fi/“Star Wars” (90% increase, 309K hashtags); “Harry Potter” (50,000 Pinterest pins); and Marvel (84% increase). For couples that live – and/or plan to wed – in Indian River County, requests for beach-, tropical-, and nautical-themed weddings continue to increase in popularity. This ongoing trend can be attributed to an almost-year-round opportunity to design a wedding and its décor for any weather- or water-related option. 

When it comes to the pros and cons of a themed wedding, designers and event planners agree that themed weddings provide an opportunity for couples to be creative within their chosen theme. As an additional benefit, many theme-related design elements may offer the opportunity for DIY creation, allowing for a cost-effective option for the couple. 

Among the cons of a themed wedding, experts point out that the search for theme-related clothing, props, and accessories may take longer to find, and be over-budget to purchase and acquire. Also, final results may ultimately not meet initial expectations, leaving couples with higher spending and lower satisfaction with the end results for the theme they desired. 

As the best advice to achieve a successful themed wedding, industry professionals suggest that engaged couples focus on just a few important things: 

– A wedding theme should be personal and reflect the combined design and styles of the bride and the groom. 

– A wedding theme should be easily apparent to the guests and indicate if they should only observe, or interact in some way, with the themed décor. 

– A wedding theme should be easy to recognize, allowing everyone to enjoy the theme and the special day of the happy couple. 

Photo courtesy of Florida Beach Weddings

Photo courtesy of Florida Beach Weddings

Photo courtesy of Mallory Munson Photography

Photo courtesy of Mallory Munson Photography

Photo courtesy of Siempre Weddings

Photo courtesy of Siempre Weddings

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